Time
by AnkouRavien
Summary: Time is a beautiful thing that exists in this world, but also cruel. There will be time when you have to choose between things, but what would happen if you choose one? Will you regret what you chose?


_You can imagine any class you like XD_

* * *

What is the meaning of life if you just stay in hospital all day?

What's the point of living when you know you're going to die soon?

The blonde doctor sighs. She's been staring at the red haired boy in the bed for an hour, waiting for him to wake up.

A green haired nurse approaches her. "Doctor Rose! We have a patient—"

"Ask the other doctor, Rena," the doctor cuts her off.

She keeps waiting. Hours, days, and weeks are passed.

The boy finally opens his eyes. He looks around the room.

"Good morning," Rose greets him as she checks him.

He doesn't reply. He keeps looking around, searching for something. "Mom? Dad? Sis?"

The doctor lowers her head. She doesn't know how to tell the truth to the boy.

He stares at Rose. "Are you a doctor?"

She nods, still thinking on how to tell the truth. She feels like she can't tell him, but lying would make things even complicated.

"Do you know where they are, doc?" he asks.

"You remember the accident?" Rose grabs his hand softly.

The boy looks at his bandaged hand. "There was fire... Mom was hugging me tightly, protecting me from it."

Rose stays silent. She's hoping the boy would realize what happened after that.

"Did they die?" the boy weeps.

The doctor nods slightly. "I'm sorry. We were too late to save them."

He starts crying. Rose hugs him tightly, wishing he would stop crying.

She wipes his tears. "Don't cry, boy. You can see them at the night sky. They become stars."

He doesn't say anything, but he stops crying.

"I'm Rose. What's your name?"

"Elsword."

"Okay, Els," Rose pats his head, "If you need anything, just press the bell."

* * *

Rose exits the room. "Doctor Rose!" Rena greets with a smile. "How's he?"

The doctor gives a sad smile. "He woke up, but..."

The elf nurse frowns. "Why do you care so much about him? The others' need a doctor, you know."

"It's..." Rose sighs, "...a long story. Let's talk somewhere else."

They find a seat. "He reminds me of the past," Rose begins her story.

"5 years ago, I married my husband. We had a son, but then car accident happened. I lost consciousness. When I opened my eyes, the first thing I know is I lost my family. They... didn't survive."

Rena lowers his head. "That boy lost his family too."

"I know," Rose grips her hand, "but he has this one thing."

The elf tilts her head. "What is it?"

"Something is wrong with his heart. I know his heart is weak, but I can't find what's wrong. I analyzed it 3 times with the hope the first two were false data, but it's not!"

"So the data said everything's normal?" Rena asks.

Rose nods slightly. "What else could go wrong?"

"Maybe we need another person who to do the job," the nurse says, "Maybe it has something to do with magic. You know this world isn't normal."

The doctor narrows her eyes. "You do it then."

"What?!"

Rose stands up. "I'll ask Add for help. I'm counting on you."

"W-Wait! Waiiit!"

* * *

"This is interesting," the doctor called Add smirks.

"What did you find?" Rose asks.

"I didn't find anything wrong. Everything is fine," Rena reports.

"Same," Add agrees, "I found nothing."

Els tilts his head. "Mom said I could never leave hospital."

The three of them stare at him. "You found me in a hospital, right?"

This fact catches Rose's attention. "What did the doctor say to you?"

"They said hospital is my second home," he answers, not helping at all. "Is this my second home as well?"

 _So they didn't find anything as well._ Rose nods and smiles. "Yes, it is."

"Looks like I've got something interesting," Add chuckles as he turns away, "I'll be back later."

"There he goes again, treating patient as an experimental subject," Rena sighs, "Remember, just press the bell if you need anything!"

"Okay."

* * *

A few days later...

A girl around the same year as Els is a patient on the same room. She suffers from dengue fever. Her skin is all red and she looks so weak.

"Hey."

The girl turns her head to the red haired boy. "I'm Els," he introduces himself with a smile.

"Aisha," she replies.

He puts a flower on a vase above the table beside her. "Get well soon!"

She smiles. "Thank you!"

In a second, they're talking about many things. Kids can make friends easily anyway.

"What happened to you?" Aisha asks as she sees scars all over Els' body.

"There was fire, but I was saved!" he smiles happily as if it's not a problem.

Someone opens the door.

Rena smiles as she sees the two of them talking. "I'm sorry, kids. I need to check on you!"

She walks toward them and checks Aisha's condition. "Get some rest, okay?" she smiles at her.

She turns to Els. "You too. Get some rest!"

"But I'm bored—ouch! That hurts!"

"I told you not to walk around until you recovered."

* * *

Since that day, Els and Aisha are always talking together. Well, not always. Aisha spends most of her time to sleep. On the 4th day, Aisha is getting better.

"You're going home?" Els asks.

Aisha nods. "Where do you live? We can play together!"

"I live here!" he smiles, making Aisha confused. He tells her that he would never leave the hospital.

Rose comes. She checks Aisha's condition before she leaves. "Glad you're fine now, girl!" she smiles happily, "You still need a lot of rest. Don't forget that!"

"I won't!" Aisha smiles back.

Her parents are smiling as well. "Thank you very much, doc."

"Don't mention it," Rose replies.

"Goodbye!" Els waves his hand.

Aisha waves her hand. "I'll come back to visit you! I promise!"

* * *

When Aisha goes back to school, everyone greets her happily, especially her 2 best friends, Eve and Lu. The three of them are always together, but sometimes this time…

"You can't join us?" the pink haired girl named Lu frowns, "You still need a rest?"

Aisha shakes her head. "That's not it. I have a promise!"

She goes to the hospital. "Nurse Rena!" she shouts.

Rena startles, but then she smiles, "Aisha!"

"I want to visit Els," she says with a smile.

"You're his first visitor," Rena pats Aisha's head.

"First?" Aisha repeats as she tilts her head, "What about his family?"

 _He hasn't told her yet?_ Rena just keeps smiling. "Just visit him, okay? He's in a bad condition and I'm sure your appearance will help him recover."

Aisha frowns. "What happened to him?"

"His heart condition is unstable. It's getting weaker since yesterday," Rena informs.

Aisha nods and goes to the room where she used to be hospitalized. "Els!"

Els' eyes widen. "You really came back!"

He's holding a colorful cube, attracting Aisha's attention. "What's that cube?"

"Doc said it's called Rubik's cube," he stares at it, "It's a puzzle, but I can't solve it."

And they're spending their time trying to solve the puzzle.

* * *

Aisha is now in junior high school. She starts spending her time more with her friends and studying.

"Els?" she visits him after a long time. When did she last visit him? 6 months ago?

"Aisha!" he greets her with a smile. "It's been a while! Anything interesting?"

"Well, you know…" Aisha starts telling him about her moments with her friends. He just laughs at her story, until she changes to different topic.

"Anyway, I love science!" she shouts happily, "Especially the biology part! It's so fun!"

And she starts talking about biology stuffs, even though Els doesn't understand anything.

"And there's this other thing," Aisha starts frowning. She looks really upset, "You know, sometimes some people need to get kicked in their head! We have a group project. This person gets an easy job, like, you just have to copy from something that already exists, but he said he doesn't understand!"

Els can't help but laugh. "Can you just kick him from your group?"

Aisha laughs. "I did!"

When she goes home, Els is back to his Rubik's cube. He's still stuck with the puzzle.

"You guys had fun?" Rose asks as she checks Els' condition.

He nods. "I wish I could understand what she was saying about biology!"

* * *

4 years later...

"You're fine today," Rena smiles at Els.

He smiles back. "Cool! Can I go to the others' room today?"

Rena giggles. "Just don't make them feel disturbed, okay?"

Rose enters the room. "Maybe you want to think about that again, Els."

Els tilts his head. "Aisha will come this afternoon," Rose smiles.

Aisha used to visit him 3 days in a week when she's in elementary school. When she entered junior high school, she spends most of her time studying and hanging out with friends. She came once in a month—if she's not busy.

When she came, she always told her moments with her friends or ranted about school assignments. Els listened to all of them. He wasn't really helping when Aisha was stressed, but he's always able to cheer her up.

"It's been a while!" Els shouts happily. He picks up the solved Rubik's cube. "I want to show this to her!"

Rose giggles. "Seriously? You need 7 years to finish that?"

"I tried!"

 _Click!_

They face the door.

"Hey," Aisha waves her hand at them.

"Aisha!" Els smiles cheerfully.

"Alright. I'm leaving," Rose turns around and leaves.

"How's school?" Els asks.

"Hey, you know what? There's a new student in our class and he's so cool!" Aisha squeals.

"Glad to hear that," Els smiles.

"But at the same time…" Aisha sighs. "It's a disaster! Everyone already has a goal in their life! But I don't know what I want to be..."

"What's your hobby?" he asks again.

"Reading," she answers as she lowers her head, "but that doesn't mean anything."

She can feel her phone vibrating. She takes out her phone and checks some chats.

"Why don't you ask your friends about yourself?"

Aisha looks at Els. "What do you mean?"

"They should have opinions about what you're good at. Maybe that would be some hints," he smiles.

"Hm... you're right..." Aisha starts typing on her phone. Little by little, she gets carried away by the conversation in the chats.

"Maybe this would give you some ideas," Els shows the Rubik's cube to Aisha.

It takes a few seconds for Aisha to notice it. "You solved it?"

"Yeah, finally!" he smiles proudly.

Aisha looks at the cube. She used to help him to solve the puzzle, but in the end he solved it alone. _If I helped him often, maybe this would be solved when I was in junior high school?_

 _Ping!_

Aisha looks at her phone again. Everyone has different opinions about her and that makes her even more confused.

"How did you solve it?" she asks as she types something to reply the chat.

"I don't really know. I completely forgot about it if I got heart attack," he laughs.

 _Heart attack, huh?_ Aisha sighs. "Even mini puzzle like this took 7 years for you because of that. What do you do now?"

"Wandering around hospital, talking with the other patients, and sometimes I spend my time drawing," he answers as he looks at the flower vase, "I still have plenty of flowers! I should give them to everyone."

Aisha giggles. "You didn't change."

"But the flowers will be dead in couple of days. I wish they could be healed too," he frowns.

She clicks a photo on her chat. It's a photo of Lu with her older brother, Ciel.

 _"This isn't fair, right?! He grows stronger and I still look like a little girl!"_

Suddenly, Aisha holds Els' hand. "What's wrong?" he tilts his head.

She realizes how weak he is. When they're still kids, he didn't look very different from the other kids, but now he's so different that someone would pity him at first sight. "You remember how much I love biology?"

"Yeah. You always talked about it back in junior high school," Els nods, "How's the biology in—"

"I want to be a doctor," Aisha holds his hand tightly and looks at his eyes, "I want you to get out from here."

Els is surprised for a moment, but then he smiles, "I'll be waiting!"

* * *

It's been 3 years since she last visited. All Els know is she's going to be a doctor and now she's a student in top university.

Since he solved the Rubik's cube, he's always drawing. Not because he wants to, but because he's bored. He's still wishing Aisha would visit him even though she's busy.

 _But I don't think that's happening._

"Hi, Els," Rena smiles at him as she checks his condition. _He's getting worse! This isn't good!_

"Can you help me?"

The nurse is just looking at him, but then she nods. He gives her an artwork for Aisha. "Please give it to her at her birthday."

Rena smiles again. "It's something that you and her have the same birthday! Why don't you give it to her yourself?"

Els avoids eye contact. "I won't make it."

Rena's eyes widen. She doesn't expect him to say that kind of things. He's always cheerful and optimistic. This time is just... so different.

"My heart keeps getting weaker for the past 3 months, right?" Els looks at Rena and smiles, "Our birthday is still 5 months later. I can't stay that long."

Rena is very sad to hear him talking like this, but she put her smile on her face. "You can. Don't worry!"

He chuckles at Rena's reply. "Thanks!"

The nurse turns around to check other patients. "Rena?"

She faces Els. "Could you contact Aisha? I want to meet her."

* * *

A week later...

Rose is sitting beside Els. She's holding his hand with the hope he would wake up. She can hear nothing but the sound from cardiac monitor.

Rena walks into the room. "Doc, I tried to contact everyone, but..."

"They wouldn't come?" Rose asks.

The nurse nods her head slightly. "Including Aisha."

The doctor smiles sadly. "If he had visitors, maybe he had a reason to stay alive."

"You're his visitors, Doc," Rena smiles.

"You too, Nurse," Rose smiles back.

Els wakes up. He can hear the familiar voices calling him. _Rose is here too? That's rare._

He holds Rose's hand tightly. He's not even sure whose hand that he holds.

 _Elsword!_

Els could see someone barely visible is calling him. She has red hair, just like him. _Sis?_

 _The girl giggles. "Hey! It's been a while since we play together, right? Let's play!"_

 _There's also a man with red hair. "What are you doing in there, son? Come here!"_

"Add! We need your help! I can't find anything!"

"I'm trying!"

"His heart is beating slower!"

Lastly, Els can see a red haired woman figure. She lends her hand.

 _"It's time to leave the hospital, my dear."_

He smiles.

 _Hopefully Aisha has another reason to become a doctor._

* * *

Aisha comes to the hospital. "You've really grown!" Rena greets her. "How's your college?"

She sighs. "Lots of assignments, lacks of sleep, and other stuffs."

The nurse giggles. "It's hard, but I think you're doing great!"

Aisha also giggles. "I'm here to visit Els. How's he doing?"

Rena smiles sadly. "Aisha, he died 7 months ago."

Aisha's eyes widen. Slowly, tears are rolling down to her cheeks. "Are you saying that... 7 months ago—"

"Yes," Rena cuts, "He said he won't make it. That's why he wanted to meet you."

Aisha cries. "I'm... I'm so dumb! What am I thinking back then?!"

Rena hugs her. She can't say anything to cheer her up now.

Except...

"Els wanted me to give you this," Rena gives an artwork to Aisha.

 _"Happy Birthday, Aisha!"_

She looks at the back of the artwork.

 _"You'll be a great doctor!"_

She's just standing there and can't stop crying.

* * *

Aisha goes to the graveyard. She places flowers on Els' grave.

"You always gave those flowers to me back when I was in the hospital," she says as she smiles a little, "You chose to talk with me rather than rest for the sake of your health. Yet, I can't do a simple request such as visiting you."

"I'm sorry. I'm such a bad friend."

 _If I visited him, would it change everything?_

* * *

 _Another random sh-t that popped out on my mind, so... :/_

 _Honestly I don't really know about hospital and things, so I'm sure I've made a LOT of mistakes here. I'm sorry XD_

 _Thanks for reading!_

 _(Actually I've got alternate ending, but meh...)_


End file.
